


Eternal Winters and Sunsets

by chamomile_and_caramel



Series: tell me the tale that i loved long ago [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Among Us References, Angst, Crumb is their cat, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fox Hybrid Floris | Fundy, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Ionic Order, Multi, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Sickfic, Skyblock, Time Travel, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, hidden messages, i learned so many new things writing this, in the future don't worry 5undy shippers, that tag changed, there's one of them :D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29766231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chamomile_and_caramel/pseuds/chamomile_and_caramel
Summary: 5up is sick, and Fundy helps while their cat just jumps around the house. Then more vague In-Between things.
Relationships: Floris | Fundy/5up, Implied/Referenced Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap - Relationship
Series: tell me the tale that i loved long ago [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2179836
Comments: 5
Kudos: 63





	Eternal Winters and Sunsets

**Author's Note:**

> if you didn't read the tags, tw for: referenced cheating, implied character injury/death
> 
> this was meant to be a songfic to Under the Weather by derivakat. as you can probably tell, that went off the rails and now it's just more lore for my weird au. with a side dish of fluffy 5undy, because in my works the fluff takes a backseat. intended to be longer but inspiration came and went, plus i'd like my wordcount to go up starting march first not the day before it counts towards my writing goal.

5up sneezed. He'd been told, mainly by Fundy, that it sounded like a kitten's. Speaking of cats, the couple's cat they'd adopted had jumped off her box and ran down the stairs. 5up looked around. All these plants he kept with him, and not a single one was a herb of use. Alliums, tulips, then some climbing vines that crept around the windowsill and across the roof. The sun was shining down through the window (he’d have to close that) but it still felt like winter. 5up knew he had a fever but was far too exhausted to do anything about it. He'd just have to wait until Fundy got home. A wave of exhaustion swept over him, and he closed his eyes, retreating to the calmer land of slumber.

5up woke to a cool cloth being pressed to his forehead. Blinking his eyes open, 5up saw worried eyes meeting his. The room was fairly dark, lit only by a couple of scattered lanterns, but the window had been closed. Sunset, perhaps?

“Hey, Fundip,” he said weakly.

Fundy smiled. "5, why didn't you tell me you were sick? I could've taken a day off..."

"Didn't want you to worry."

Fundy gave him a ‘you are an absolute idiot but I love you anyways’ look. It was funny, considering how Fundy was usually the one doing something stupid, and 5up had to save him from accidently killing himself with redstone or something new with runes. The most dangerous experiment was an attempt at unlocking the wizard’s portal with the help of a local potionsmaster. The last one to try… well it hadn’t gone well. The grave still had magic rolling off it. All in all, having a common cold be the thing to force 5up to stay in bed was ridiculous. The plant spent his days working in a lab off the Mushroom Desert; if he was put to bedrest it should’ve been the experimental plants being created there.

But instead, Fundy was taking care of him. He hated being sick, though it was nice to have more time with Fundy. Their jobs kept them on different islands, and both their projects were done in secret. Even the potions kid, Tubbo, didn’t know that the lab off the farming island even existed, and they came by for dinner twice a week plus pet-sat for the cat. The cat hadn’t been named yet, but 5up and Fundy were thinking of calling her Crumb, because her ginger spots looked like crumbs on a tile floor.

_Ginger_. 5up did have something to help. Propping himself up on his elbows, he put it simply. “Ginger root.”

Fundy gave him a strange look. “Ginger…? Are you making fun of my weird hair coloring or something?”

5up laughed. “Ginger tea. It helps alleviate the symptoms of a common cold.”

The ginger – ha – made a small fox noise of understanding. Fundy went downstairs to the kitchen, his bushy tail swishing back and forth as he left. 5up sighed. Even a simple cold was a liability in his job.

The lab was a mysterious place. Many assumed that the empty portal frame would be just another farming island. However, what really laid there was a top-secret laboratory, complete with a greenhouse (much more professional than his own, which was really a nursery), a medbay stocked with experimental drugs (some produced from the plants being engineered) and a chemist’s lab. 5up’s job was to take care of the plants and make sure they were safe.

Ha. The gardeners were the ones that needed to be kept safe. 5up felt bad for the unsuspecting researchers; they’d come expecting normal plants and instead were threatened by seemingly normal _mushrooms_ for fuck’s sake. Most of his job seemed to consistent of warning scientists to not touch the plants, then saving them when they inevitably did precisely the thing he’d told them not to do. While the ‘protect the plants for once instead of the people’ aspect didn’t come in effect often, 5up knew that they were extremely sensitive to infection, viruses, bacteria, and the like. Sickness would spread like wildfire in the greenhouse.

Even with all the bad parts, the job was thrilling. He and Fundy had some of the most unusual jobs in the Skyworlds.

* * *

Karl was cursed with a very unusual job. Time travel was an undeveloped concept. Very little was known about it, only that mysterious illnesses popped up after a certain age, or when too much warping was done.

Standing in the In-Between, he found himself staring at the large tree in the courtyard once more. It was a cherry tree, but white as snow. And also covered in snow, icicles hanging from fruitless branches like beautiful yet deadly daggers. An eternal winter had been set over limbo, but no snow falling. It was still there though, blanketing the leaves and freezing them.

Though it was winter, flowers still bloomed, and bushes still grew. Greenery didn’t simply cease to grow because whoever built this place decided it was to be winter. Karl found comfort in the plants for that reason. Though he knew that the mysterious founders had to have allowed the plants to grow, the plants still symbolized a way to disrupt the peace.

The In-Between was not to be trusted, that much he knew. But Karl felt more and more invited by this strange paradise by the second. Each time he visited, a small voice in his head told him to stay. And it was getting louder. The tranquility of the cherry blossom castle was so inviting, yet even the carefully carved swirls and scenes designed to depict chaos was in exact order. Karl could feel strong waves of displeasure from somewhere, but it felt old. Older than time and the cosmos.

To a time traveler, that was terrifying. Knowing that there was a crucial piece of information just outside your reach? Torture. Karl found himself staring at one of the bowls that held fire, the only source of light beyond the sun, moon, and stars. The flames and smoke seemed to arrange themselves into a cruel smile. It reminded him of one of the first and only scenes he’d studied, back when he was wide-eyed and excited at the prospect of time travel.

Ha. Karl could only hope for a way out. The most he could hope for was moments with his fiancés, before he had to leave once more. The looks on their faces broke his heart every time; Quackity with tears in his eyes and an arm around Sapnap, who would always look sad as well (the ravenette would always try to hide it, though it never worked) while trying to decrypt Karl’s vague excuses for leaving at midnight for days. He wished he could tell them; they deserved to know. But truth be told, he didn't know either. If he did tell his fiancés though, it'd be easier on everyone. Karl hated that when he could come home, he couldn't say a word, only worrying his boyfriends more.

The flames danced, forcing him to focus on the scene painted below it. It happened to be the one he’d thought of. A two-faced puppeteer. One side was a kind man, putting on a puppet show for some kids. The kids were laughing, and the man smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes (the amount of detail one can put into even an old carving).

The other side used the same kids as the puppets, putting on a show for no one but himself, laughing all the way.

* * *

5up laughed, holding a cup of warm tea in his hands. He’d felt better and had come down to the outdoor area. The sun was setting over the sprawling farmlands in their vision, and he was laughing at some stupid joke that Fundy had said.

This life of love was amazing. The hybrids had created a life for themselves; a perfect one. Even with the downsides of jobs and such, small moments like this one made the flesh-eating plants, freaky portals, and looming threat of elections worth it. It felt like this moment in the sunset would last forever.

_A fox waving to a plant before walking out the door. The plant hadn’t been able to tell the fox how he really felt. The ginger returned some months later for a quick visit; the plant’s heart breaking as he spotted a ring on the joyous fox’s finger. Walking in on a friend of his about to kiss the fox in Comms. Doubling over as the infection finally overtook him, the orange crewmate in front of him’s eyes turning from worry to fear as the imposter looks at him with bloodlust._

5up smiled as he curled up into Fundy’s side, the couple staring at the stars beginning to appear.

* * *

Karl walked towards the wither rose that was the centerpiece of the hallway. He side-stepped the roots, which curled around the small pedestal it rested on. Karl spared it a glance before walking with purpose to the tree. In reality, he had no clue what he was doing. But as the voice got stronger, he began to see this as a game with a deadly consequence from losing. The rules weren’t clear and neither was the punishment, but the scoreboard was like a flashing sign, signaling a warning to _run_.

He turned to face a pillar. Like all the rest, the top split into two separate swirls, splitting from lines trailing down to the base. But this one had more lines than the intricate ones so carefully carved ones.

These lines were the opposite of the others. The scores were scratched in desperately, begging for help. After all this time documenting stories, Karl could tell when a tale was ready to be told. The lines had to be made by claws; the scratches were too deep, thin, and- eerily precise.

None of the lines made any sense, though he did write them down in his notebook (ʖᒷ∴ᔑ∷ᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ 𝙹ꖎ↸ ⊣𝙹↸ ⍑╎ᓭ ᓭᒲ╎ꖎᒷ ╎ᓭ ᔑ ꖎ╎ᒷ, if you were curious). But there was one outside of the gibberish. A crudely drawn smiley face. Then one final scratch that led off the pillar.

An imperfection in a perfect land. Karl grinned.

**Author's Note:**

> did the standard galactic language get through? the enchanting table words might not have worked. if they didn't, comment and i'll tell you what it was meant to say. if it did work, please comment anyways because comments make my day :)


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